Home Improvements You Can Do Yourself While Self-Isolating

The coronavirus epidemic has forced countless people to spend a lot more time at home. For many, this is a challenging experience. But for all its frustrations, self-isolation can also be a source of opportunity.

Instead of focusing on what you’re missing out on, you might want to consider whether there’s anything you’ve been meaning to do around the house. And even if nothing comes to mind, you’ll probably start to think about different possibilities as you look at the same walls throughout the day.

Every home can be improved. Some improvements require a professional hand, but there are also do-it-yourself projects for every skill level, which can add a little more organization, cleanliness, beauty, or excitement to any given space.

Before Choosing a DIY Project

If home improvement sounds like a good way to fill your time in self-isolation, you have some decisions to make.

Naturally, the first step in choosing a project is simply identifying what needs to be improved. But once you’ve done that, you need to make sure that the desired improvements align with your skill level, your work environment, and the available materials.

Since we’re all trying to minimize our public contacts and non-essential shopping, it’s best to choose a project that uses available materials. Maybe you have scrap wood or old doors in a basement or shed. Maybe there are things around the house that you were thinking about getting rid of, but you can repurpose them instead.

You’d be surprised by what you can accomplish with what you already have on-hand. Just don’t get too ambitious if you have limited experience with such projects. The last thing anyone needs right now is another source of stress.

Launchpad for Brainstorming

At this point, you might be looking at a pile of materials or a room that needs improving, and still not know what to do with any of it. Unfortunately, without being able to consult you on your particular home, we can’t really help you choose the right improvement project. But one of these general recommendations might provide a spark of inspiration.

Get creative with paint – It might be impractical to paint an entire room when you have to live in it for most of the day. But there are still ways to expand your color palate without having to vacate a room for days at a time. You can protect furniture with drop cloths and add color to the ceiling, or you can stencil patterns onto a wall. And if you have a bathroom with tile floors, you can also add patterns to those, creating the look of a whole new floor with a fraction of the work.

Add wood accents – Whether you have an entire supply of lumber at your disposal or just a couple of old pallets, you can add a lot of rustic appeal to areas of your home. Simple planks can be arranged over a baseboard or around the borders of walls and windows. Various piece of wood can be arranged in patterns over a door and then transformed with a coat of paint. And broken down pallets can even been reconfigured into an entirely new surface for a featured wall. If none of this sounds appealing, there’s always the old standby DIY project: building a bookshelf.

Upcycling – There’s no limit to the ways in which you can repurpose furniture or rearrange mixed media into something new and distinctive. With a few anchor blocks and a homemade countertop, you can turn an old dresser or a set of cabinets into a brand new kitchen island. Existing countertops of unused doors can be “skin coated” with concrete to provide an entirely new look and feel. And with a little adhesive and patience, any patterned material or makeshift tiles can become an attractive backsplash.

Good Luck for Now!

As we said, these are just a few random ideas, which we’re offering to you as food for thought during this period of self-isolation. If you need more inspiration, you can visit our Instagram page. And if you’re still not sure how to best remodel your home, just our site bookmarked and contact us for an estimate when the coronavirus pandemic is over and things are returning to normal.